Serious Blowing Through Improvisation

Though Acts of Silence has focused much in the genre of experimental electronic music, I have found myself drawn the improvisation (avant-garde, experimental, noise) of what many would consider more traditional instruments. I beleive the spirit of these two genres are very much linked and can be heard in many of the improvisational releases which combine laptops and these traditional instruments. So it should be no surprise that laptop listening jockey like myself would find solace and adventure in traditional instrument improvisations.

Somewhere in the shadows of Barcelona, El Pricto gathers other musicians around and let’s them lose. Over the last year, he has had his hand involved in many projects, some of which have been released on his netlabel Discordian Records. The latest of these is Això és gravíssim! which features Ferran Besalduch on Bass Saxophone, Joan Palacio on Contrabass Trombone, and David Parras on Tuba.  The album is broken up into two parts, the first half is made of improvisations of different combinations under the umbrellas of “Low Suite”, while the second half is made up of two composed tracks, one written by El Pricto and the other Roscoe Mitchell.

Això és gravíssim!  begins with whispers in “Low Suite: B-lowing in the wind”, horns are played with the purpose of incompleteness along with a bit of percussion and hidden voices. Then the next few tracks feature various instruments and players taking the lead and showcasing improvisation. Of these tracks, my favorite is the “Solo Tuba”, mainly because of misunderstanding of the tuba which I know has a rich history in American Jazz, though my knowledge of the instrument is extremely limited. As I have listened to Això és gravíssim!  several times over the last few weeks, I have been always impressed with the new sounds and nuances I have been able to take away from the album at each listen.